Not Strong Enough

A Story by Jamie

A piece for submitted for Open Your Time Capsules! Entirely unedited, per rule requiremet. ... Good lord. .____. MS Work told me 966 words with out estimate word count; slid in under the wire! xD

Exact date of writing [Thank you DeviantArt]: November 2nd, 2009

Three gunshots resonated throughout empty streets on the outskirts of the urban Japanese city. The victim of the shooting hit the ground with a dull thud as the shooter's footsteps could be heard, racing out of the secluded alleyway. In the shadows of the alleyway, a young woman, just leaving her teenage years, lay dying, soaking in a pool of her own blood. Snowflakes began to fall, quickly layering the sidewalks and streets with the thick heavy flakes of a mid-December snow. The young victim's breaths puffed in the air in a short, ragged rhythm. 'The wrong place at the wrong time. The police describe a lot of victims' deaths like that... but was I really? Was someone waiting for me?' Same path every night"cut through this alley, a shortcut to get back to the apartment more quickly. It wouldn't have been hard for someone to know that if they saw taking that shortcut every night.

Serenely, she turned her head to gaze upward, studying the white-gray light the wispy snow clouds cast on the dark winter's sky. She wasn't panicking. Maybe the cold numbed her body and emotions. Or maybe it was the fact she knew she would soon see her mother and father once again. The only thought that disturbed that serene state was knowing she that, the woman she'd been with since she was fourteen years of age, would be alone. At the thought of her lover's face, a dazed smile settled in. She could clearly see the yellow-hued female's face in her mind, alight with a fiery personality no one could match. That smirk.

Tears brimmed in her eyes, but she still smiled. Her life flashed before her eyes"a small child, first moving to the city. Her earliest memory. Her mind ran through the short course of events on the timeline of her life: numerous birthdays, first school days, other important events. It froze one event that stuck out even in as she bled out, consciousness fading.

A trail a crimson crept down the concrete hill, beginning at the corner of Kanagawa and Hiroshima. Passing pedestrians saw, those out after midnight anyway, but none followed, knowing what lied at the end was nothing nice; however, two teenagers stopped, curious. Two females in high school uniforms. One, smirking and an apparent smartass, with short black hair and lightning yellow eyes. The other, a kind smile and warmth in her eyes, with rusty colored hair and eyes like fresh blood. Their fingers were intertwined.

"Mariko... I smell blood." The black-haired female spoke up, glanced over her shoulder to toward the scent.

"Blood?" Mariko quirked a brow, eyes on the top of the hill. She could see a male, lying motionless in a pool of blood, the original of the trail at their feet. She could make out a utility belt"a cop. There was enough light to catch a glint of light on the badge. "She should go check on him." She was already on her way up the hill. She was afraid it may be a friend of her father or his father. No thoughts; they were dead. Even unconscious or asleep, there were thoughts and dreams.

But what they saw...

"D-Dad?" Mariko's eyes widened; tears ran down her cheeks. She dropped to her knees beside the corpse. No. This wasn’t-. She was ready see a familiar face, mentally prepared, but her father.

Karei simply stood beside her girlfriend in shock. Risking a glanced, she counted four, five, six slugs, all in the throat, torso, or head. He was dead"no heartbeat, eyes were wide open, glazed over and blank. Not dead for long though. The blood still smelled fresh. The shots first first…, she could guess, but she tried not to think about it for Mariko.

The shock wore off and the realization that her father was dead hit her, hard. A wave of crushing sadness hit her as a large wave crashing against a cliff wall would. Mariko's emotional stability crumbled as tears spilled over her lower lids. Sobs rose from deep within her chest, her body beginning to tremble.

Karei dropped beside her, pulling her into her arms. Even she started to cry. Silent crimson tears ran down her cheeks. There was nothing she could say, nothing she could do, to make this less painful. All she could do was comfort her and try to be strong. Try

Mariko didn't fight the embrace. She shut her eyes, buried her face in Karei’s chest. She didn't want to look anymore. It was just a nightmare; one she couldn’t wake up from. It had to be. She told herself the same thing when her mother died.

'... Four to the chest, barely missing vital organs...' The tears brimming in her eyes, once warm, now cold like ice, slipping down her pale cheeks. 'One to the throat, just barely nicking his carotid artery...' The puffs of breath in the air were slowing; it was getting harder and harder to breathe. '... and a final shot to the head to end it all. How much could he have suffered?' She thought, the edges of her vision blackening. What little background noise ther had been was fading in and out. She knew she was in pain, but she was beginning to feel it less and less now. She wondered where she'd been shot... She couldn't remember anymore. As the edges of her vision blackened, her body became colder. Her eyes drifted shut. She was so tired... so very tired. '... I'll just rest for a while..' She though. She knew that wasn't the case though. "I'm... sorry..., Karei.. I.. just wasn't... strong enough.." A final puff of breath in the air could be seen, then all in the small secluded alleyway was still.